Scholarly Publishing in the Electronic Age: A Graduate Student's Perspective.

Thompsen, Philip A.

The issue of whether the nature of scholarship is being changed by electronic publishing was made clear to a graduate student when his telecommunication link to the world (his modem) failed. While the newer forms of academic communication offer impressive advantages over traditional publishing, scholars still feel compelled to retain somehow the sense of quality, rigor, and "sweat-off-the-brow" labor that characterizes the best of traditional forms of scholarship. As scholars discover the potential of electronic publishing for entirely new forms of intellectual work, they may find themselves creating a new kind of scholarship, an "electronic scholarship," with different advantages and disadvantages, and reflecting different values. There are four signs of a possible shift in how scholarship is viewed: (1) speed of delivery versus care in preparation; (2) depth of information versus breadth of knowledge; (3) print-based literacy versus computer-based literacy; and (4) author control versus audience control. Scholars should approach the future of scholarship with their eyes wide open, working to recognize shifting epistemological foundations, and trying to detect and document their changing view of scholarship for future generations of scholars. (RS)